Charter Knows They Need Help
by suspiciousteapot
Summary: Ellimere takes it upon herself to play the matchmaker for Nick and Lirael


Ellimere often woke before the rest of her family. She liked to read and watch the city awaken as she drank her coffee before having breakfast with everyone.

Before Orannis, her mother (when she was there) and father often came down first, and Sam, still half asleep, joining them some time later.

Now it was often her aunt who joined her first, habituated as she was to the early waking hour of the Clayr, with Nick coming in soon after.

This was rather interesting, given that for about a week after his return to the Old Kingdom, Nick used to come down around the same time as Sam. What was more interesting, and amusing for that matter, was watching Nick and Lirael try to talk to each other. It was the most disastrous attempt at flirtation Ellimere had ever seen. Today was no different.

"Good morning." Nick said brightly, startling Lirael, who spilled the boiling water for her tea over her hand. Luckily it was the golden one.

Nick rushed over to help her, managing to bump into at least two chairs on the way. "I'm so sorry. Are you hurt?"

"No, it's -" she held up her hand in explanation.

"Right."

They both moved to dry the table, recoiling when they accidentally touched hands.

"Sorry," they apologized simultaneously.

Lirael blushed.

Ellimere was quite glad she had not inherited this trait – she favoured her father in colouring - it revealed one's feelings far too much. But perhaps it was a good thing for someone like her aunt. Nicholas would likely never be able to guess her feelings for him were it not for the fact that she blushed whenever his name was mentioned or she was talking to him.

Not that they seemed to talk much beyond stammered 'hello's and 'goodbye's and brief, stilted conversations about the Glacier and Somersby. Even that seemed rare, as Lirael avoided him like the plague and could barely speak to him when they were together. Nicholas was quite the opposite; going out of his way to bump into her. Unfortunately, when they did cross paths, he was just as tongue-tied as she was. You'd think someone raised in the most important political family of Ancelstierre would be a bit more suave. In fact, she'd met him before at one of the Wyverly-Somersby dances, and most of her friends had instantly developed a crush on the charming, handsome young man. It was only around Lirael that he turned into a bumbling idiot.

All throughout breakfast they cast each other furtive glances, quickly looking away or loosing track of the conversation if they caught each other's eye.

Ellimere didn't know whether to laugh or roll her eyes.

Though both were generally fairly graceful and easy to talk to, in each other's presence they became ridiculously awkward and clumsy. It was sweet, really. But if they did not get over it soon and actually begin to converse like normal people, Ellimere decided she would have to intercede on their behalf. They really would be a good couple; they just needed to get over their nerves and admit they wanted to be.

"Bloody hell!"

Ellimere peeked into the practice room. Nick was sitting down and massaging an elbow, about a meter from a chest he had presumably been attempting to unlock.

 _Excellent._ She hoped her mother and aunt were done with Abhorsen training for the day.

As she expected, her aunt was in her mother's study, but both were reading so she decided they were likely done with any pressing work.

"Aunt Lirael, would you help Nicholas? He's having some difficulty with an unlocking spell."

Lirael looked up in surprise, eyes wide. "Me? I'm sure you or Sam would be a better teacher."

Ellimere waved her hand dismissively. "Sam always goes off on tangents that are far too complicated for a beginner, and I'm afraid I must meet with the habourmaster to sort out a conflict. Besides, you're an excellent teacher. You taught us all about that Hrule in Ancelstierre."

"I suppose I could try to help," said Lirael, closing her book and looking over at Sabriel. "Unless there's anything else we should be doing?" She sounded almost hopeful Sabriel would say no.

Sabriel shook her head. "We'll get ready to leave for Orchyre after supper. And I think you helping Nicholas would be a fine idea."

Ellimere noted that her mother's mouth twitched into a small smile, and they shared a knowing look.

"How's the sword fighting going?" Sam asked Lirael at dinner some weeks later. Sabriel had been teaching her for quite a while, with Touchstone and Ellimere occasionally pitching in to help.

"I'm learning." Lirael replied. "Slowly."

"Don't undercut your accomplishments." Sabriel said gently. "You're doing quite well. You just need more practice."

Nick was learning too, Ellimere knew. She had helped Sam teach him a couple of times. _Another perfect opportunity_.

"As you and Nicholas are both learning to swordfight, perhaps you could to train together," she proposed.

Touchstone nodded. "I've always found practicing with someone at the same level as you to be quite helpful." She wondered if her father knew why she had suggested it. He was good at playing the fool, but Ellimere thought she caught a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"That does sounds like a good idea." Nick agreed. He looked over at Lirael. "If you'd like, that is. I'm afraid it might be slow going." He smiled bashfully. "I've got a lot to learn."

"It sounds like we're well matched then." Lirael said quietly, her blush lending more meaning to her words than she'd probably hoped to give them.

Ellimere smiled. _Better and better._

Sam fell into step with Ellimere as she walked to the courtroom.

"Yes?" she acknowledged him. They weren't on the worst of terms, not since Orannis, but her little brother was still frightfully annoying sometimes, and they didn't often seek each other out. She supposed she would have to try a bit harder to reconcile with him, but that was a problem for later.

"Cricket."

"No." Sam had convinced her to practice various cricket drills with him one summer, and it had proved to be unnecessarily complicated and dreadfully boring.

"Yes." They entered the courtroom. Few people were there, as the session did not start for another ten minutes. Ellimere liked being early. Sam always teased her about it.

"No. I'm too busy for faffing about."

Sam scoffed. "Sure. I suppose tennis is actually some kind of work then. Helps the kingdom's morale or something."

"Well, it actually does help with sword fighting, so really it's a kind of practice."

Sam rolled his eyes and snorted in a most unprincely manner. But then, what did he ever do in a princely manner, really?

"Why don't you just ask some friends?" That was mean-spirited she knew, and immediately felt quite petty. Sam had alienated all the friends he had in Belisaere when he'd been trying to be the Abhorsen-in-waiting, and was still on shaky grounds with them.

"I thought we were friends now," he replied, not missing a beat.

"We are." She pulled on her judge's gown.

He looked at her expectantly.

"Oh fine. I'm sorry, that was mean. Anyways, even if I agree, I thought you needed more people for cricket."

"With Nick and Lirael, we'll be four, and that's enough to play a modified version," he said, leaning against the pulpit.

She sighed. Perhaps if she agreed to his cricket match, he would agree to play tennis with her. It had been some time since she'd played with anyone other than Lirael and her clumsy suitors, and Sam was actually quite good at the sport. Not that she would ever tell him that. A doubles game would really be quite fun... _And it's the perfect excuse for Lirael and Nick to spend some time together._ In Ellimere's experience, sports were always a good way of getting more comfortable with someone. That decided the matter.

"Fine. But only if you agree to tennis with Lirael, Nick and I."

"Great, meet you in the west gardens this afternoon, say about 4 o'clock. Can you tell the others?" He asked, turning to leave. "I have to finish working on something for Tael and I haven't started." Typical Sameth.

"Fine. I'll tell them right after this. And tennis Saturday morning!" she called after him.

He held up a hand in acknowledgment.

Throughout the court session, she found herself looking forward to the afternoon's match. Provided Sam didn't get as bossy as he usually was with cricket, it might actually turn out to be fun.

She found Lirael in the palace library, as she knew she would. She and mother had just returned from Orchyre, and Lirael always sought the library's comfort after she returned from Abhorsen work.

"Aunt Lirael?"

"Yes?" Lirael said, looking up from her book.

"Are you free at four this afternoon and on Saturday?"

"Yes, unless anything comes up. What for?"

"We're playing cricket tomorrow with Nicholas and Sam, and tennis with them on Saturday."

"Oh! But I don't know how to play..."

"Sam will teach us. It'll be fun." Ellimere said decisively. "Nicholas's class will be out in about 10 minutes. Could you tell him the plan? I have to go speak with Jall Oren about a case I tried today."

"I…yes, of course…I…I'll tell him" Lirael stammered.

 _Charter they need help_.

Ellimere wound up and bowled the ball to Lirael.

It hit her foot and bounced into left field.

"Dead ball!" called Sam.

"How is it dead?" protested Ellimere.

"Because you threw it at her foot!"

"You two always throw it at people's feet! She was supposed to hit it!"

"No, you throw it at the ground in _front_ of the batsman or woman. I explained that!"

Sam and Nick had spent about an hour explaining the rules for normal cricket, and then for modified cricket, as it was Lirael's first time playing and Ellimere hadn't played since Sam had got her to help him with his drills that one summer. As she'd expected, the rules were ridiculously complicated, and there seemed to be about a million of them. The game itself was far too boring to warrant such nonsense. She almost regretted agreeing to the match.

What was more, though Ellimere had insisted Nick and Lirael be on the same team, Sam said he was the better player, and should be on a team with Lirael because it was her first time playing. Ellimere though a more probable reason was that she was not the only one who had picked up on Nick and Lirael's feelings for each other.

"It's fine, really," said Lirael. "Let's just move on."

The afternoon dragged on, Sam and Ellimere becoming progressively more frustrated with each other.

Sam pitched the ball to Ellimere, and she hit it as hard as possible, her frustration channeled into her swing.

On the upswing, the bat felt strangely light.

"You've broken it!" Sam cried out.

Indeed, she was not only holding a splintered stump of wood, the other three quarters of the bat lying several inches in front of her.

"Well clearly you didn't make it very well." Ellimere snapped back. He was clearly trying to ruin everything.

Lirael watched Sam and Ellimere argue, unsure of whether or not to intercede. She wondered if she and Sabriel would have been so quarrelsome, had they been closer in age and raised together.

"That's an end to that then, I suppose." Nicholas said, joining her by the wicket.

She jumped.

"Sorry!" He apologized, "I seem to be quite adept at startling you."

"You do have that effect on me." She blushed. _Great Shiners. Did I just say that?_

Lirael studied the wicket intently. She had found it much easier to talk to people outside the Glacier…except Nicholas. They had talked fairly easily as they'd flown back to Belisaere after she'd saved him from the Hrule, but once they reached gotten there, she'd hadn't been unable to have a proper conversation with him. Consequently she'd begun to avoid him. Not that she didn't want to see him, or talk to him. It was just that he made her stomach flutter in an altogether surprising manner, which was rather worrying.

"I hope tennis goes better." She said, forcing herself to look back at him.

"Yes! I've heard it's good fun. Not from Sam of course." He ran his hand through his hair. He had rather nice hair. It was blond and slightly wavy, and part of it always fell in front of his eyes. His eyes were quite beautiful too….

"…before?" Nick asked.

"Pardon?" Lirael stammered. She'd completely missed what he'd said. She quickly looked away, hoping he hadn't noticed her staring.

"Have you ever played tennis before?" Nick asked again.

"I have, a bit. Ellimere's been teaching me."

"You'll have to teach me how it's done then." Nick said, smiling.

She smiled back at him. Charter, he had a nice smile.

Sam and Ellimere's quarrel crescendoed.

"I suppose I ought to stop them from hurting each other, being their aunt." Lirael said, looking back at them. _Oh excellent! Remind him you're his best friend's aunt._ She let her hair fall in front of her face, embarrassed. Perhaps she should remind herself of that fact. Clearly they were unsuitable for each other. And she didn't really have feelings for him. He was just good looking, charming, kind, interesting, and he was quite unlike the men that visited at the Glacier. They always assumed she should want them just because they were charming and handsome. Nicholas just seemed to enjoy talking with her… or trying to at any rate.

She quickly walked away to go reconcile her niece and nephew, blushing furiously.

"Hello! Heading down to the tennis match?" Nick called, jogging over to Lirael as she made her way down to the practice room Ellimere had converted into a tennis court.

Lirael waited for him to catch up. "Yes."

They turned up the stairs that lead to the upper floors. The sun streamed in through the windows, causing Lirael's hand to shine.

"Sam was saying he made some changes to your hand," commented Nick.

Lirael nodded. "It was a bit insensitive before. It felt as though I was constantly wearing a glove."

"And he managed to make it feel like your other hand?"

"Actually I think he may have cast the spells a bit strong. It's more even more sensitive than a normal hand now."

"Well done Sam!" Nick pronounced. "I say, would you mind if I took a look at it? I've noticed that you can sometimes identify marks in things that have been spelled, and I'm dreadfully curious to see if I know any of the ones in your hand."

They stopped, and Lirael held out her hand to him. "I don't mind. I'm sure you could make out some of the marks."

Nick studied her hand intently. His hands were warm and soft, save for the calluses that were developing from his sword fighting lessons. They made her hand feel strangely tingly. _Sam clearly went wrong somewhere with the spells; hands shouldn't tingle without reason._ _I'll have to talk to him about it later._

"Oh I know one of them!" Nick exclaimed. "Well, that is, I know it's used to hold something together. It's one of the ones in a spell I've just started to learn. I'm not sure of the exact purpose of this spell it's in though. Looks marvelously complicated."

"Most of them are." Lirael agreed. "Sam devised some rather ingenious spells."

Nick looked up at her hopefully. "I'd love to hear more about them. Sam tried to explain once, but it didn't make much sense, particularly since I couldn't see them."

"Perhaps later I could try to explain some of them to you," she offered.

Nick beamed. "That would be terrific! Does this evening suit you?"

"Tomorrow evening after supper would be better." Though Lirael had realized that she enjoyed the company of others much more than she had in the Glacier, she found that she still need to be alone sometimes, especially after being with people all day. Besides, she wanted to go over an odd passage from _The Book of the Dead_.

Nick nodded decisively, causing his bangs to flop over his eyes rather comically. "Tomorrow evening it is then."

They continued towards the practice room. Nick was still holding her hand and, to her surprise, she found herself sincerely hoping he did not notice and let go.

"They're sweet," said Ellimere definitively as she gathered the tennis racquets.

"No, it's strange." Sam protested.

"They're barely a year apart."

"Almost two years," he corrected her. "And besides, she's our aunt."

"So you feel queer about your best friend falling for our aunt and possibly ending up as your uncle."

"No. No." Sam said, shaking his head. "That is absolutely not going to happen."

Ellimere rolled her eyes. "Get over it! Think of someone else for once."

"That's just… that's completely unfair!" Sam spluttered. "This is not me being selfish, it's - "

Ellimere cut him off "It's about you being selfish. Oh by the way, I'm putting them on the same team for tennis." She disappeared into a storage closet.

Sam groaned. "No, Ellie, please don't insist on this."

She emerged with the net and handed him one end of it. "You agreed I could choose the teams for tennis, so I have."

"That was before I realized this was part of some plot to get Nick and Lirael together!"

"Them spending more time together is hardly a bad thing. And don't pretend this is all my doing. They clearly have feelings for each other, even you can see it."

At that moment, Lirael and Nick walked in. They were holding hands but quickly dropped them as Sam and Ellimere looked over.

Sam harrumphed and kicked a tennis ball across the room.

Ellimere shot him a pointed look. _Don't screw this up._

Ellimere found Nick on the battlements overlooking the paperwing tower.

She was surprised. He seemed to prefer wandering the city to looking at it from above, as Sam enjoyed. But then, he was also endlessly fascinated with the paperwings.

"Good afternoon." Ellimere greeted him.

"Hello!" He replied cheerfully.

He gestured to the paperwing attendants on the tower below. "They seem to be setting up that airplane thing Lirael flew me here in. What is it they're preparing for?"

"Well, Lirael and my mother will fly out for Hafmer tomorrow, and -"

"Lirael's leaving? Will she be in danger?" Nick interjected. "Not that she and the Abhorsen can't handle it, of course." He added quickly.

Ellimere shrugged. "They're going to Hafmer to stop a petty necromancer who's raised a small host of Hands. They should be alright."

"How long will they be gone?"

"Probably about a month." Ellimere eyed studied his reaction.

"A month?" He seemed quite dismayed. That was good. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, as they said, but in her experience, a fair amount fondness had to already be present for that to hold true.

"It takes some time to apprehend a necromancer, decide whether he is dangerous enough to have to be sent beyond the Ninth there or can be brought home and rehabilitated, dispatch with any remaining Dead or Free Magic creatures, and help any citizens who require aid." She looked back at him. "But it is a while to be away from people you care about. I know some correspondence would not be unwelcome."

"Yes?" He smiled and ran a hand through his hair. He seemed to do that rather a lot around Lirael, or when talking about her, Ellimere remarked.

"Yes, well, of course I will then. Yes." He bounced a little, grinning like an idiot. "Absolutely."

 _Great Stones, they're adorable._

The trumpets sounded Sabriel and Lirael's return for Hafmer only three weeks later. Ellimere and Touchstone excused themselves from the council meeting to go greet them.

The usual greetings were made, her parents hanging back to greet privately after she and Sam had had a chance to say hello.

"You're back!" Ellimere turned. Nick practically ran over to Lirael, before remembering himself and stopping short.

He coughed and ran his hand through his hair. "Er…You're back early…That is, you said you faced some difficulty…I was worried…" he trailed off.

Lirael smiled. "The difficulty was more easily managed than I feared."

They stood there, smiling at each other.

"Well that's all well done and dealt with then," said Sam loudly.

Nick and Lirael quickly looked away from each other.

"Ah, yes…well, I'll help you with the packs then?" Nick offered.

Before Sam could shoot that idea down, Ellimere quickly interjected, "That would be quite helpful. Besides, Sam and I have to talk to mother and dad about something."

Sabriel and Touchstone both nodded earnestly.

"Yes, of course." Touchstone confirmed.

Sabriel agreed, though she did not conceal her amusement at the situation. "We must speak immediately."

Sam glared at Ellimere, which she ignored. Thankfully he did not protest, instead choosing to storm away. He would come to terms with it eventually.

They left Lirael and Nick alone with the packs, and as they turned the corner into the stairwell, Ellimere caught Nick kissing Lirael on the cheek out of the corner of her eye.

 _This is going quite well indeed_.

"You've succeeded." Sam said grumpily, throwing himself into an armchair in Ellimere's study.

"Well yes, at almost everything I do." Ellimere responded without looking up. "You'll have to be more specific."

"Lirael was hanging out in my workroom, and then Nick came in, pretending he didn't know she'd be there."

"Oh?"

"They didn't stop talking for a whole bloody hour, so I left. They didn't even notice."

Ellimere glanced up at him. "Don't pout. It's unbecoming."

He scowled at her, and she felt something like triumph.

Ellimere walked onto the balcony overlooking the east gardens. It was fall, and the morning air was deliciously crisp. She often came out here to clear her head before and after meetings.

She heard voices from the gardens below and looked down.

Nick and Lirael were strolling through the gardens, hand in hand.

"You're saying you can essentially become an animal with magic?"

"Well it's more like wearing a costume, really. Though it's quite a good one. You even start craving foods they like if you wear it long enough. Oh, and you also see things the way they see them."

"That's fantastic! I would love to see you make one."

"I'm sure I could teach you, if you'd like."

"Really?"

"You're a fast learner, and…it would be fun. It would be nice to spend more time with you."

Nick stopped and Lirael turned to face him. He took her other hand.

"May I?" He asked quietly.

In response, Lirael leaned forward and kissed him. It was a quick, shy kiss.

Nick brought a hand to her face and kissed her again, Lirael responding in kind.

Ellimere left them to court privately. To think they'd been unable to talk for more than five minutes just a few months ago. She smiled to herself, pleased by what she'd accomplished in barely four months. If only matching Sam with a suitable partner was so easy.


End file.
